I’ve thought about writing this post for years now.

Hunting is the source of the most physically demanding challenges I’ve ever experienced. I’ve been dehydrated, beat to hell in manzanita, and had an Army Ranger tell me a hunt was worse than Afghanistan. Not to mention my misadventures in Alaska, Asia, and New Zealand.

I used to think that hunting made you a better man. There was something edifying in the struggle. And there was a correlation between a man’s prowess on the mountain and his morality amidst peers.

You can’t lie on the mountain. It cuts through bullshit faster than an Alsup’s burrito ruins a road trip. But it only reveals if you’re strong. It doesn’t care if you’re kind.

In 2023 we rented a spare bedroom to a travel nurse, Lizzy. We became good friends. Lizzy had just gotten out of a bad marriage. Her ex abused her. He called her names, demeaned her, gaslit her, and physically hurt her. Lizzy left with nothing just to get away from him.

A few days into her stay, she realized that I hunt. So we started talking. She’d killed animals herself, she told me. Her ex was a hunter.

For a split second I thought, “No way.”

Then, knowing he had a lot of money, I assumed he was a trigger man. The guy that shows up, pulls the trigger, then lets the guides do the work.

Nope, she assured me. He packed out his own animals. He did all the things, just like me.

This demolished my hunting-makes-you-a-good-man hypothesis.

I laugh now, remembering how guys on forums would complain when their trail cameras were stolen. “I can’t believe another hunter would do this,” they’d say in dismay.

Now here I am making the same silly miscalculation.

It turns out hunters are just human. And we all do the same nasty shit everyone else does.

But I’m going to draw a line here. And if you cross this line, you’re a piece of shit and you need to get some help.

If you hurt a woman or a child. You’re a piece of shit.

If you find pleasure in inflicting pain on an animal, yes, even house cats, you are a piece of shit.

As a Mormon kid, I remember a painting of a muscular Nephite man wrapping a cloak around a woman as she came out of the baptismal waters. I’m not Mormon anymore, but I remember what that painting taught me, that men should be protectors.

The Cornell fraternity case breaks my heart. A house full of young men at a prestigious university found a young girl in a vulnerable position. And instead of protecting her, they gave her more drugs and treated it as a free invite. Not one person on that group text thread thought maybe she needed help.

Women should not have to fear men. Women shouldn’t have to cover their drinks at bars for fear they’ll be roofied. They shouldn’t have to be afraid of parking next to a panel van at Home Depot.

Men should protect women, no matter how nasty a person she might be. And except in cases of legitimate self-defense, men should not hurt women. And if you do, you’re a piece of shit.